I had to chuckle this afternoon when I tuned into the talk show and heard the announcer say it was time to trade Jason Bay, that a change of scenery would do him good.

BAY: At intro press conference. In happier times.

How could it not?

Citi Field might be too expansive for Bay, and sure there’s the New York pressure, and playing somewhere else just might turn around his career. But, it is wishful thinking.

Bay isn’t going anywhere, at least not for a few years, anyway.

Only somebody with deep pocket would be willing to take the balance of Bay’s $66 million contract off the Mets’ hands, but nobody wants to do the Wilpons any favors.

The Red Sox backed off their initial offer to back because of concerns over his knees and shoulder, and whether they would hold up over the course of the contract.

So far, those haven’t been an issue like Bay’s concussion and oblique, but they are still out there. What is on everybody’s radar is Bay’s monstrous contract, a full no-trade clause, and lack of production, notably a dramatic drop in power.

Sure, Bay might benefit from going elsewhere, and no doubt the Mets would like to get out from under his contract, but he’s not going anywhere.

The Mets wasted another Chris Capuano outing last night, but on the bright spot they has a good outing to waste. Capuano has been up-and-down this spring, but he’s had a several starts suggest he was worth the gamble.

And, before Chris Young was injured, he had his moments, too. Ditto, Pedro Beatto.

The 2011 season hasn’t been totally void of positive developments. Ike Davis has been fun to watch, Jose Thole will continue to improve, Carlos Beltran has stayed healthy and, despite for some concentration lapses, Jose Reyes has had a good season.

You can make statistics read anything you’d like, but the 15-20 Mets have lost 11 games this season by two or fewer runs. Improvement in the RISP category and they could be a .500 team or better. It’s not that inconceivable to believe.

In every team’s development from bad to decent to good, there are steps and one of them is learning how to win the close games. Yes, they’ve won a few, but the 11 they have lost can be, and should be gnawing to them.

Hopefully, these defeats are bothering them, making them angry and more determined to concentrate and focus when the games are close. That’s why I pointed out the other day about Reyes. Sure, they won that game, but there have been others they lost where he and others fell out of focus.

The Mets are having some good things happen this year, and their losing the close games should be looked upon as a learning experience. When Sandy Alderson is considering how close the Mets are to reaching contending status, this is something he should evaluate closely.

This is not a contending team, but it isn’t one that should be blown up, either.

We keep hearing how good Jose Reyes is, that at 27 he’s a mercurial talent with the potential to be one of the great talents of the game. And, he is good.

REYES: More head scratching.

But, it’s always something with him that makes one pause to think, “what is going on with this guy?’’

Over the past six games Reyes is hitting .440 with a .517 on-base percentage, but that stretch included two head scratching moments Saturday that shouldn’t be excused just because the Mets won that game.

In the second inning he was picked off first as strolled back to first inning, and in the seventh he was inexcusably thrown out at third trying to advance from second on a ball hit to the shortstop.

Stuff like this just shouldn’t happen, especially to a player supposedly as good as Reyes. The play at third is something they teach players in hight school not to do.

Just a couple of more in a long line of earth-to-Reyes moments that have marked his career. They are what separates good from great.

Considering how it began, you have to be satisfied with the Mets’ six-game homestand against the Giants and Dodgers. A split was about as good as could be expected, and that’s what the Mets got.

Perhaps the most significant development coming out of the homestand was Chris Young’s second appointment to the disabled list. He was a gamble signing to begin with, so this really can’t be looked at as a surprise. The Mets are just fortunate that they’ve received good pitching from Dillon Gee.

The Mets already said Young won’t be activated when he’s eligible to come off the disabled and this makes me wonder if we’ll ever see him again. With his injury history, it is a legitimate question.

No, Young wasn’t ever going to be a stud starter in the Mets’ rotation, but as a gamble you take what you can get and they got 24 innings.